The Federal Law Enforcement Training Accreditation (FLETA) Board is pleased to announce it granted reaccreditation status to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Laboratory Division (LD), Hazardous Evidence Crime Scene Operations (HECSO) Course at the November 5, 2020 meeting.
The goal of the Hazardous Evidence Crime Scene Operations Course is to train FBI personnel to safely respond to and operate at hazardous crime scenes while identifying, collecting, and preserving hazardous evidence. Students of the course are trained to the First Responder Operations Level as defined by OSHA 29 CFR 1910.120 (q)(6)(ii), “Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response”, as well as meet objectives for the Operations Level Responder as defined by the National Fire Protection Associations (NFPA) Standard 470. The course is a total of ten days (eight instructional days and two evaluation days). The course is conducted at the FBI’s Operational Response Center (ORC) in Stafford, VA.
The FLETA Board is the accrediting body for all federal law enforcement training and support programs. To achieve accreditation, agencies submit to an independent review of their academy and/or program to ensure compliance with the FLETA standards and procedures in the areas of Academy/Program Administration, Training Staff, Training Development, and Training Delivery. Accreditation is a cyclical process occurring every five years. Each year, agencies must submit annual reports in preparation for reaccreditation, which is a new and independent review of the academy/program.